The pandemic moment has driven some changes. One of them is the strong trend towards remote work that can become definitive in many companies.

Many businesses were forced to adhere to this regime, which proved to be an interesting and viable alternative for employers and employees.

As a result, most companies started to implement remote work teams. In this scenario, the importance of managing remote teams becomes more evident .

The ability to manage teams remotely is an extremely important quality, both for managers and team leaders. However, remote work still presents numerous challenges for companies and employees.

Read on and learn what it is and how to implement Remote Team Management in your business!

In United State, the adoption of the mass remote work model, almost instantly, boosted the need to manage these teams has never been more essential for companies.

In this scenario, managing remote teams represents different challenges for the team. Employees need to be organized and productive, and leaders need to learn to manage their teams.

With this, the culture of remote work is essential and requires professionalism and discipline to be operationalized correctly.

But, what does Remote Work mean?

It is a working model that provides autonomy and independence.

It means working from anywhere. It can be from home, a coworking space , a coffee shop. In other words, the concept is much more comprehensive than the home office model and can help you understand where and how your productivity works best.

And what is remote team management?

In the same way as face-to-face management, Remote Team Management is crucial for good team performance. Monitoring the team from a distance is essential for managers and leaders. This constant monitoring must pay attention to the following factors :

1. Communication;

2. Organizational Culture;

3. Working Hours;

4. Adaptation;

5. Goals;

6. Team Engagement;

7. Flexibility;

8. Motivation;

The remote team manager must also be prepared to lead his team towards the achievement of goals, strengthen collaboration between the team and create a good working environment.

The leader needs to adapt his routine and his technological tools to perform with the same quality and efficiency at a distance.

Benefits

• Increases productivity;
• Reduces team stress;
• Possibility of finding better-prepared candidates;
• No geographic limits.

Challenges 

• Communication;
• Agility;
• Time optimization;
• Organization;
• Routine;
• Planning.

How to apply remote team management?

As we said, managing remote teams still represents a great challenge for leaders and managers.

Distance, lack of clear communication, lack of time management and monitoring of goals, and the absence of proper alignments with the team can make it difficult to implement it with assertiveness.

However, we have selected three important mechanisms to do this.

3 Important Points in managing remote teams

1 – Organization

Creating a proper working environment is the team’s number one task. Employees must take care that the home work place is neat and clean.

Employees must be educated and guided on best practices for working from home. It should be clear that they should not work in their pajamas or in very casual clothes.

The ideal is to assemble an internal booklet with good remote work practices, showing how the organization of the environment and the care with the personal image are important for productivity and time management.

Managers must pay attention to planning and carrying out the activities agreed with employees.

2 – Remote Work Culture

Team leaders and managers play an essential role in defining and implementing the remote work culture, as they represent a reference model for the entire team.

Therefore, they must prioritize clear and assertive communication, establish a climate of trust among the team and, last but not least, encourage collaboration between team members.

The feeling of belonging to a project, to a purpose, makes a big difference in the results. Keep the team cohesive around the same objective and, whenever possible, reinforce the importance of each one for the success of the projects.

Be aware of possible communication noises, remember that communication is a two-way street. So listen more and give the necessary feedback.

The climate of trust among team members is essential for the success of the work. After all, trust is the foundation of any relationship, and professional life is no different.

3 – Online work tools

To reduce the distance and promote team engagement, bet on social interaction technologies.

• Use applications and software to chat with the team and strengthen social interaction ties (Zoom, Skype, hangouts and the CEFIS videoconferencing platform );

• Schedule periodic meetings with the team and make individual calls when necessary;

• Send the meeting agenda to the participants:

• Communicate in a friendly and personal way with your team. Make eye contact online and call people by name;

• Listen and give feedback;

• Establish responsibilities, deadlines, delegate tasks and follow-up ;

• Send a message of optimism;

• Briefly summarize the meeting and make sure the entire team is aligned with the goals of the projects and activities.

You can also use remote team management and productivity tools like Trello and Slack.

Bonus Tip

Now that you have learned about Remote Team Management, how about accessing the Remote Team Management Course , completely free, on the Cefis website ?